Apologetics Class Jan 17th 2016

Hi All,

We had the last session on the Ambassador’s Guide to Pluralism Sunday.  We finished up the booklet!  At the beginning of the class, we watched 2 videos:

Joel Osteen Says Jesus Christ is Not the Only Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwL1DThtxYg

How do you know that Christianity is the one true worldview? (Ravi Zacharias): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWY-6xBA0Pk

Here are the questions that drove our discussion after the reading:

From Wide to Narrow?

1. (pg. 19) Does God owe any rebel a pardon?
2. (pg. 19 – bottom) Explain the “source”, “ground” and “means” of salvation as God’s redemptive history unfolded through the Old and New Testaments.
3. (pg. 20) Explain how Adam, Abraham and the other Old Testament saints trusted in God, thereby receiving salvation by faith alone.
4. (pg. 21) What point is so critical that “it is repeated in various ways no less than 16 times in the New Testament (John 5:23b; 5:37-38; 8:19; 8:42a; 12:48-50; 14:7; 15:20b-21; 15:23; 16:2-3; 1 John 2:22-23; 4:2-3; 4:15; 5:1; 5:9-12; 2 John 1:7-9a)?

The God-Fearing Gentile

1. (pg. 22-23) Why did Cornelius, “a righteous and God-fearing man” whose “prayers and alms had ascended as a memorial before God”, need to hear the rest of the story – the specifics about Christ and the cross?  Why go through all this detail?
2. (pg. 24) If the clear testimony of the Apostles and the ancients gave “little hope for the salvation of those who, since the time of Christ, have had no chance of hearing the gospel”, what good reason do we have to abandon their message in the modern era?

Paschal Redux

1. (pg. 24) What is Pascal’s wager?  Explain it.  How can the same “wager” be applied to the doctrine of inclusivism?
2. (pg. 25) How is the preaching of inclusivism giving “false hope to the lost”?

Next weekend we start a new series where we will examine one question or objection per week about the Christian faith.  This first week’s question is:

“Is the Bible Divine Rather than Simply Human in Origin?”